Enterprise 2.0 Office Space

Earlier on today, I was at home looking in vain for the little usb cable for my new camera (Lumix TZ3). I couldn’t find it so thought I must have left it in my office. The trouble is I seem to be collecting office space at the moment and I’ve been at each of them in the last week. I have my European (I guess it could be worldwide) head quarters 🙂 at the end of my garden (hand built by myself a few summers back). I also have space at the University of Kent and Canterbury, kindly donated by a grateful client. Add to the list a desk at my main client’s site, and of course my official business address in London which comes with an on demand hot desk. Most of the professionals I work with on engagements are home based and as yet I’ve not had a client ask to visit my premises. I wouldn’t know which one to choose anyway.

This got me thinking. It’s really happening, the workplace of the future. A few years ago I read an article about how businesses of the future would be more flexible in their approach to location and the space they occupied. Their employees would work from home or hot desks near customers. As a result their carbon and financial footprint would be greatly reduced.

I do kind of miss going to the same office every day, the banter with colleagues and the predictability of it all. Flitting between locations based on need and mood has its advantages but is prone to leaving a trail of tiny usb cables and gadgets in various parts of Kent and London.

So where do you guys and girls work? Are you based at home, a combination of places or do you go to the same office every day?

5 thoughts on “Enterprise 2.0 Office Space”

Like you, I’m an indie consultant who moves to where the work is. While I base myself in Canberra, Australia and manage to do a lot of my work here, I actually quite like travelling and meeting new people so time on planes doesn’t much bother me. It helps that my wife and daughter are also incredibly understanding.

From time to time, I need to get out of the home office to avoid the inevitable cabin fever. I’ll travel into the city to work in a cafe or to other nearby places where I can meet with colleagues and friends for coffee. I think it’s a necessary and valuable sanity break.

One client gives me access to an excellent work space in Sydney by the name of Bureaux (http://www.bureaux.com/) when I’m there. It’s very cool – not a serviced office and not a coworking space either.

Hi Stephen – good to hear from you. I think I just need to be a little more organised and get out of the habbit of loosing things! I agree that you have to get out of the home office every now and then. I too vary where I work to avoid going insane. Your space at http://www.bureaux.com/ looks very nice. Although you should talk to them about their site as I clicked on the photo gallery link and it was a PDF – yuk 🙂

Hi Scott. Interestingly enough, I relocated from NJ to Austin where our headquarters are based. (About 3000 kilometers). Once I got here, I realized it was more efficient to work at home. Plus, Austin traffic can be a huge polluter and time waster during commuter hours.

We have co-working days here in Austin where independents and home office workers can socialize and cross-pollinate ideas, and I do go into the office on occasion for meetings.

For the most part, however, I work “in the cloud.” I even changed my Twitter avatar to reflect my location choice. 🙂

Hi Susan, I know the Austin traffic well. In fact I’m not too far away in a few weeks when I will be in Houston for 12 days. If you happen to be close by let me know.

Co-working days sound really important. I bumped into a guy I thought had left a client years ago the other day. Turns out he was working from home and it was his first trip into the office for 12 months….he only lives 20 miles away!

I work from home, and travel less. But generally speaking people seem more flexible, but at the same time travel more, mobility is increasing too! (maybe we have more contacts all over the world/country and hence travel more)

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